[Bored chemist]

It's a catch 22
If they get through then they must have been "smaller" than the slits.
So you haven't done the experiment "as described" with slits smaller than the buckyballs.

[pittsburghjoe (OP)]

How is it a catch 22? If the experiment shows the buckyballs were smaller than the slits ..even though the slits are smaller ..it would mean it's structure wasn't there when in wave form. I now wonder if it's a wave of variables / information ..nothing physical.

[chiralSPO]

I think we are now confusing two different (but slightly related) concepts: tunneling and interference.

Interference has to do with how waves move AROUND barriers (or how waves from multiple sources interact).

Tunneling has to do with how waves behave at edges (and that they don't just stop). A buckyball (being composed of sixty nuclei and hundreds of electrons) is highly unlikely to tunnel through any barrier. However, single elementary particles can tunnel over vast distances (on a molecular scale) through barriers or empty space.

~~~

There is also the issue that we have to consider what the actual structure of the slits is. Are they gaps within a material barrier that is made of atoms? If so: What kinds of atoms, and how are the connected? How thick is the barrier, and what is the shape of the slits (again remembering that if the edge is made of atoms, it must be "fuzzy" too). If not: what is it made of???

[pittsburghjoe (OP)]

I don't care what you call the experiment as long as you admit to no physicality in matter waves.

[chiralSPO]

I don't care what you call the experiment as long as you admit to no physicality in matter waves.

I will admit no such thing.

I will admit that:
A) buckyballs, or electrons, or whatever, are neither particles nor waves...
B) ...but they exhibit both wave-like and particle-like properties.
C) And whatever they "actually are," they are physical entities, with properties we call mass, charge, momentum, etc.
D) wave functions are mathematical equations that describe the behavior of these particles—wave functions are not actual physical entities.

[pittsburghjoe (OP)]

::rolls eyes::
okay, so how do we get a scientist to do this test and shut you down?

[Bored chemist]

::rolls eyes::
okay, so how do we get a scientist to do this test and shut you down?

What would be different about doing the test today or doing it 20 years ago?

[pittsburghjoe (OP)]

You are suggesting the slits were smaller than the projectiles?

[Bored chemist]

Not exactly.
I invite you to consider the practicality of making such a grating.
All it needs to be is a regular array of things that are closer together than the size of a buckyball.

I think that experiment has been done- often.

[pittsburghjoe (OP)]

If so, you are blind to the real world.

[chiralSPO]

If so, you are blind to the real world.

Then you are welcome to celebrate your clarity elsewhere and leave us to wallow in our ignorance.

[Bored chemist]

If so, you are blind to the real world.

There is none so blind as he who will not see.

And you don't see that , for example, the stainless steel vacuum chamber in which they do these sorts of experiments is a grating with a very small spacing.
It has crystals of metals that are regularly spaced ions  with gaps between them.

But I see you were far too busy thinking you were right to actually consider what I had said.

Now, what was that about being blinded to the real world?

[pittsburghjoe (OP)]

It's pretty pathetic when a guy, not even in your field, has to point this out.

[Bored chemist]

It's pretty pathetic when a guy, not even in your field, has to point this out.

Well, I don't know what your field is, but it's plainly not QM.
Mine is,, and I guess that's why I had to point it out to you.
The experiment has been done and the result is what you expect.
Big things seldom go through small holes.

[pittsburghjoe (OP)]

I like seldom

[Bored chemist]

A buckyball (being composed of sixty nuclei and hundreds of electrons) is highly unlikely to tunnel through any barrier.

That's nice, because you have heard it at least twice

highly unlikely to tunnel through any barrier

How likely depends on the barrier, the particle etc.

But the point remains, the experiment has been done- in effect, countless times.

[jeffreyH]

Hey Joe... Why not drill a hole in a sheet of steel and throw house bricks at it? You could have a detector behind the steel sheet to detect the interference pattern. This is a sort of kitchen science experiment.

[pittsburghjoe (OP)]

You and I both know there is a certain number of atoms always anchored to spacetime. Fight it all you want, this will be key to hoverboards/hovercars ..something I desperately want to witness in my lifetime.

[jeffreyH]

OK Joe I have to apologise. I have misled you. You need to drill two holes in the steel sheet. Otherwise it isn't a double slit experiment.

[pittsburghjoe (OP)]

Super clever, hope your comment makes the next documentary on the next generation of science.